The Lost Effect
by Jemmz
Summary: What if what Ben said was right? That the people Jack contacted would kill every living person on the island? Except one.Desmond emerges after Charlie's death and discovers something shocking.Now he must discover how to fix everything before it's too late


_**If you've seen The Butterfly Effect this may make more sense to you p Still should be pretty interesting and intense though so enjoy! **_

* * *

**The Lost Effect**

He sat. It seemed all he'd been doing for the past year was sitting. Alone. And now it really had been a year. A year today he had witnessed Charlie's death and returned to loneliness on the island. Not another soul to share his pain.

Oh, how he remembered the shock and pain of that day. He was scarred for life. Thoughts raced through his troubled and disturbed mind. Now it seemed he would be left here to die alone. Like the rest of them.

_Desmond wiped the last tear away from his crumpled face. The body of Charlie Pace floated in front of him on the other side of the glass window. There were marks where he had desperately tried to break it but he couldn't. He had watched his friend die. And now it was too late to stop him. It was over._

_Reluctantly Desmond left the dead Charlie in the hatch. He grabbed an oxygen mask and swam back to shore before resurfacing._

_He barely had time to register what lay before him. He wiped the salty liquid from his face and rubbed his eyes. In front of him he saw several dead bodies. He cried out and ran over. Some of the bodies he did not recognise. Some he feared to say he did._

_As he ran over he saw the van Hurley had found in the jungle. He peered inside. Hurley lay pressed against the steering wheel. Cold, unmoving. Desmond nudged him. Hurley's limp body turned revealing a bullet wound in his head. Desmond stepped back, eyes filled with tears. He had already mourned Charlie Pace's death. Now it seemed he had to mourn Hugo Reyes' too. _

_But it wasn't over._

_He walked around the vehicle to see several bodies lying on the floor. He covered his mouth in shock. And then he saw. He saw Sawyer and Juliet lying cold next to each other. He ran over and felt for their pulses. Pulses that weren't there. They were dead too. Gone. Just like that. Desmond noted a gun that lay about a metre from Sawyer. He guessed he had tried gunning the evil scum down before having the weapon thrown from his hand. It looked like he and Juliet had been thrown a distance. Their faces were sooty and dirty. Desmond shuddered at the thought of an explosion. It must have been the dynamite Sayid, Bernard and Jin were meant to shoot. _

_And as if on cue, as the Scot turned around, there the three were. Desmond let out a cry as he saw the three men on the ground lying beside each other. Gun shot wounds implanted in their heads. He trembled and his heart beat faster and faster._

_He ran. Ran far away as fast as he could in to the jungle. Tears fell from his face. They were all dead. Everyone on the beach! Murdered and gone forever! _

_He suddenly remembered the rest of the survivors had gone to the radio tower. He made his way there walking every so often to catch his breath. But he had to reach Jack and the others. _

_He had not only one death to deliver now but many. How could he deliver this news? That not only Charlie-Claire's Charlie-was dead, killed by Mikhail, but now so was the camp's beloved Hurley, Sawyer and Juliet. Not to mention Sun's husband Jin-a soon to be father, Sayid and Bernard, Rose's partner for years now. This couldn't be happening. But it was! It was!_

_He arrived and grabbed a tree branch catching his breath. What he saw made him wish he never came here. Hundreds of them lay spread out in front of him. Dead. A massacre. Women, men-they all lay on the ground in pools of blood. Desmond didn't even want to imagine what happened. _

_He walked between the bodies examining each one with a disturbed expression across his face. Many were in special purple suits like henchmen out of some 007 movie. These were people he had never seen before. Desmond then remembered Charlie's last message, quickly sprawled across his palm were the words, 'Not Penny's Boat.' This made him wonder. Could these people be their 'Mysterious Rescuers'? Judging by what had happened these people were certainly not their saviours. There seemed to have been a massive fight between them and the survivors. A war. _

_He continued looking around. There seemed to not only be these people with purple suits but Others too. Many of them. As he tried to process what happened he saw Ben on the floor clasping on to Alex's hand. Both wounded by gun shots. The guns lay everywhere. Either thrown from people's grasp or still being held tightly in their hands._

_He stepped back in horror when he realised he had stepped on someone's hand. He jumped off immediately and gasped. He fell down beside the body. It was Jack. The leader seemed to have lead his people right in to their own deaths. Not their rescue. Desmond had to fight off the fears and tears that threatened to emerge. _

_He swallowed hard and stood up, his face screwed up. He looked off in to the distance and saw a couple of helicopters on the ground. The remains of them anyway. He sprinted over to them. They were in bits, spread on the ground and were blackened by the soot from some sort of fire. Desmond guessed these people came in them before whatever it was happened to them. _

_Sun and Danielle lay weakly, cold and hard, their hair flowing on the ground supposedly been thrown back from the blast as the helicopters exploded and combusted. He covered his mouth and he couldn't restrain the tears any longer. _

_As he ran he passed John Locke who lay face down, a dagger firmly implanted in his back. He ignored his body and continued running as tears fell. _

_Then he came across a smaller group. Before him lay Kate, Claire, Rose and a few others. He covered his eyes and rubbed them fiercely as he muttered loudly, _

"_This can't be happening!" _

_The panicked tears fell and Desmond was convinced he was going to be sick. He ran off and held his stomach in aggravation. _

_He tried to overcome the emotion he was feeling. But everyone he knew! His friends, even his enemies! They were dead! All dead! In all that time he and Charlie had spent down in the hatch trying to save them it seemed the rescue mission had killed them all instead of rescuing them!_

_He winced. Oh Charlie died for nothing. They all did. They all died for nothing! No one will be saved. No one will ever leave this bloody island!_

_After a while he buried them all. Every one of them. Even the Others and the mysterious people from the helicopters. His nails grew dirt filled and his back ached as the sun burned his already tanned skin. But he had to do this. _

_His arms grew tired of digging and he was afraid he would feel forced to sever them off. But he carried on and buried every last one. Even the people at the beach. He had buried all but Charlie who had a watery grave out at sea. He had nothing left to do. And then he sat down in the sand and stayed there. Just sitting and staring._

And that's all he had done for a whole sodding year. He grieved the anniversary of the survivor's deaths. Just sitting and staring out to nowhere, thinking. Maybe he was waiting? For what he didn't know. He didn't know anything anymore. It seemed all he could do was remember, and replay the events that happened that day. That horrible, bloody day. It often brought tears to his eyes. Sometimes he was too numb for tears. Sometimes he felt angry. But there was nothing he could do. But sit and stare. So he sat. And he stared. And he suffered…

They were never meant to be rescued it seemed. It also seemed there was nothing he could do but sit here and let go of false hope. Of never getting off the island. Of never seeing Penny again. He would die here with everyone else.

Desmond blinked long and hard. It seemed as if some life was still in him after all. After so long. He could go for a long time without even breathing. Sometimes he would purposely try not to breathe in the hope that he would fall asleep and never wake up. But after a few moments he would stop holding and gasp for breath. He'd often thought it was him being cowardly and that was where the self hate came in.

'_I could have stopped it…_' He'd often thought to himself. '_They could still be alive…_'

Even though this was highly unlikely, Desmond's mind had gotten so disturbed since that day, so…confused, that he needed someone to blame. And he was the only one that was left…They were all dead, It killed them. It killed them all. The island. Desmond must have known somewhere, deep inside that this island would be the death of them. Why hadn't he known? Why hadn't he done something? He moved his hand into an angry fist as these thoughts swam around his mind and taunted him. He clenched his teeth and his eyes watered. His muscles were stiff from not having moved in a while. He shut his eyes tight and the tears fell from his face, he breathed heavily. As his eyes were closed he saw a flash and within that flash he saw the timer from the hatch. The timer that he used to reset with those damn numbers. He recalled Hurley saying something about them being cursed. Oh, how right Hurley must have been. The numbers must have cursed them all! Cursed the island! Cursed them to their deaths. Desmond didn't know. These things had played over and over in his mind, driving him insane and he hadn't come to any conclusion.

Then he heard a noise behind him. _Beep beep. _It sounded just like the computer from the hatch. _Beep beep. _It got faster and louder. _Beep beep! Beep beep! BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!_ Desmond couldn't stand it any longer. With some difficulty he got himself up as quickly as a shot, as his muscles burned from the sudden movement after being relaxed so long. He moved away from the spot where he had been sitting and turned to look for the source from the beeping. But there was no source. Why the bloody hell would there be? There was no hatch anymore. No computer. Desmond feared his mind was worse then he thought.

After moments of confusion he thought he heard a voice.

"_Kill Kwon." It said coldly. The voice sounded distorted as if coming from a phone or a walkie talkie. It sounded so strange, to Desmond, to hear another human voice after so long of silence. With only the birds and insects for company. But where was this voice coming from? Before he had a chance to figure this out the scene around him seemed to brighten and disappear before coming back again…but it looked different. There were tents, newer looking then the ones Desmond was used to looking at. And…there were people! Quite a few even! But before Desmond could rejoice in this he heard a noise and swung around._

_He saw some Others. Others?! Where had they come from? They all died! Everyone died! So why were there people?! The Others weren't only what he saw. He saw Jin! And Bernard! And Sayid! Desmond almost cried with happiness at seeing his old friends before it was registered in his mind that they were being held at gunpoint on the sand. Desmond almost choked. What was happening? He looked at his old friends staring death in the face and had a quick flash, where he saw the 3 dead on the floor with gun wounds piercing their flesh. It was a memory. That flash was a memory. From when he found the 3 dead. But where was Hurley? And Juliet and Sawyer? Had he gone back? Back in time? The flash was over in a second and he was back, seeing Bernard, Jin and Sayid alive again. Desmond breathed. If he had gone back in time he could stop this. He could stop it from happening. But before he could do anything there was a gunshot and Jin got shot in the head. There was a loud cry from Bernard and Desmond yelled out._

"_NOOO! STOP!!" But it seemed he was invisible as nobody paid attention to him. He looked down at his hands and saw he was transparent…a ghost. He wasn't really there. Then what was this? Where was he? Stuck between past and present? Or was this some kind of vision? Desmond's psychic powers hadn't worked for a very long time. Was this them returning? But stronger and more powerful? As he looked up he witnessed the Others shooting Bernard and Sayid. Desmond fell to his knees._

"_No…Not again. Please, not again." It was the first time he had said a full, proper sentence aloud in a very long time._

_Before the grief could take over a van came out the jungle as if being spawned from thin air. It appeared to be coming straight for Desmond, who opened his eyes in shock and before he could yell in fear the van had crashed right into him…or right through him, which it seemed do to. The van continued rolling down the beach and banged right into some of the Others who were thrown a distance from the collision or crushed under the wheels. _

_Desmond stared in amazement at the van and then at himself, whose body was in the same condition it was before the van rammed right through him. He could see that his whole body was still transparent. The van couldn't have hit him. Because he really wasn't there…Then…_

_BANG._

_Desmond swerved around to face the van and the direction of which he heard the gun shot. His face showed a look of terror as he ran over towards the van door. There sat Hurley slumped over the steering wheel, the bullet wound fresh and the blood still wet. It was like he was standing staring at this sight just yesterday. He covered his mouth and stepped back before he turned his attention to Sawyer and Juliet who came charging forward grabbing guns from the floor and shooting furiously at the others. _

_Desmond screamed at them to go back. He knew what was going to happen. But this wasn't like one of his visions. He had lived that whole year alone and now he was back. Actually __in__ the past. But They couldn't hear him. _

_They shot some of the Others before Sawyer made the fatal mistake of shooting his last bullet at the dynamite near the remaining tent. There was a loud explosion and Desmond's ghostly self tumbled to the floor. He looked up over his shoulder wheezing for breath. And there he saw Juliet, Sawyer and the others sprawled along the floor. Lifeless. Gone. _

Desmond breathed heavily and opened his eyes, a tear falling. _That's what happened,_ he told himself, _How they died that day. While Charlie and I were in the hatch they were up here killing each other. _

He had often wondered what happened. And now he knew. But that didn't solve the mystery of how the other crash survivors lost their lives. He guessed it was some kind of war but he was curious. The vision he had seen….he was there. He had seen it clearly and lived through the events that had taken place.

As Desmond wandered over passed the old, abandoned camp towards the shore and washed his tired, pale face he tried to figure out why he had seen what he saw. It didn't make much sense. But he was distracted. A floating object caught his eye. It was long and checked. Black and white coloured. He pulled the object out of the water and as it drained he couldn't believe his eyes. It was one of Charlie's vans. It was old and drenched, starting to drain colour but they were most definitely recognisable. It was amazing they had found their way back to the island. The man held it close to him and bowed his head. It was as if the universe wanted Desmond to do something. So it was sending him all these reminders and signs. But he didn't know what to make of it. He scratched his beard in thought.

Curiously he dropped the shoe to the wet sand and sprinted towards the radio tower. He needed another sign. If the universe was trying to tell him something he was almost positive the signs would continue at the radio tower.

Panting heavily, he stopped part of the way and walked. He got a sudden rush of de ja vu. The last time he had come here was that year ago. When they all died and he arrived to see all of their bodies lying on the floor. He was still distressed. Even 365 days on he felt he was losing his mind at the thought. It was worse then being all alone in the hatch pushing the God damn button!

He arrived. He passed by the graves he had dug all that time ago. The scars on his hands still remained. Like the scars in his mind. They would last forever. He shuddered and paused. He stood there in the middle of the dug up and buried Earth. He stared up at the radio tower. Some bloody use that was. He sighed and waited. But nothing happened.

"You lead me here!" he yelled as if talking to fate, "What do you want from me?! What else could you possibly want now?!"

No answer. As expected. He ruffled his long hair and sighed again in frustration.

_He heard whispering. It sounded like a woman whispering._

"_Help us. Stop it. Go back!"_

_It sounded like Claire. Desmond shuddered at the desperation in her voice. He swung around to see if he could see her but instead he saw Jack. He was talking into a phone with the rest of the survivors looking at him in anticipation._

"_I'm one of the survivors of Oceanic flight 815." Desmond heard Jack say into the phone. "Can you get a fix on our location?" _

_So Jack managed to contact Naomi's boat by using the phone. He and Charlie had been successful in shutting down the jamming equipment. But what happens next? What kills them all? _

_**Not Penny's boat**_

_That was what was written on Charlie's hand._

_Desmond looked back up at all the survivors as there was a reply from the phone and all their expressions turned to smiles and tears of happiness. They all believed they were going to be rescued. Only Desmond knew. Only he knew that they weren't going to be. He looked over at Claire and saw a smile on her face as she looked at her baby. Then he thought of Charlie and himself in the underwater hatch at this moment. Claire had no idea…and she never would. As she would end up with the same fate, not long from now. They all would. _

_Desmond noticed Naomi on the floor, a knife in her back. John Locke shook his head at the current situation and sloped off. _

_The Scot wandered what his problem was. Maybe he would never find out. He was still engrossed in the vision when the helicopters finally came. _

_There were two of them. Everyone cheered and made way for the machines as they landed. A man stepped out, a group following him and standing near the copter. The man was in one of those purple suits and on his face rested a pair of sun glasses. Jack grinned with relief and went to shake his hand. _

_But Desmond had a bad feeling about this. He knew what the outcome would be._

"_Oceanic 815?" smiled the man as he shook Jack's hand, "You must be Jack Shepherd," he continued as Jack nodded._

"_Yes. You have no idea what we've been through," Jack took a moment to laugh at the relief that it was all finally over. They could go home. _

_As Desmond watched he noticed Ben's irritable behaviour. He struggled against the tree he was tied to and got hit in the face by Danielle. But Desmond was curious about the small man. Especially when he spoke up, _

"_They'll kill us all, Jack! They'll kill everyone!" _

_The French woman seemed to shut him up. _

_But Ben had been right. _

_The new man smiled curiously but let it go, "Well it's a good job Naomi found you."_

_Jack's smile slowly faded, "Yeah," he said gently knowing the body of Naomi rested behind him._

_The man stared at him for a moment before noticing the corpse behind him, "That's Ok," he responded to everyone's surprise, "She was a necessary sacrifice."_

_The crowd of crash survivors stared at him. Kate was the one to speak up, her nose wrinkled, "What?"_

_The man in the suit smirked, "She was going to die anyway."_

_Claire, suddenly having a horrible feeling held the baby close and spoke, "W..why?"_

"_Because none of you are meant to live," and before anyone could question him any further the strange man pulled out his gun and shot Jack directly in the chest. _

_Desmond gasped. So this was how it began. The massacre. Who were these people? Why did they kill these innocent people? _

_Kate screamed loudly as she watched Jack fall clutching his chest. But it was too late. He was dead. She let out a cry before noticing the gun was being aimed at her. She pulled out her own gun and dived for cover as everyone else started yelling and running all over the place as more of the strangers filed out of the helicopter raising their guns and shooting at everyone. _

_Kate fired furiously and killed several of them._

_Ben squirmed and cut himself free….Yelling into his walkie talkie that had been dropped to the floor; he called for back up from the Others._

_Danielle raised her shot gun and shot some of the strangers down._

_Alex screamed. Karl grabbed her arm and they ran._

_Ben seemed to look alarmed, "No!" He grabbed a nearby gun and shot Karl in the leg._

_Alex yelled out as Karl fell to the floor. She hit Ben hard. But she was suddenly shot. Ben yelled at her murderer and punched him but he was hit over the head, shot 3 times and killed. He grasped Alex's hand in his final moments. _

_The massacre continued to play out right in front of Desmond. He could hardly believe his eyes. He didn't think his unstable mind could take it. _

_He heard a cry and witnessed John Locke being knifed in the back. He fell to the floor. The man who killed him spat, "That's for Naomi."_

"_Make it stop." Desmond whispered. "Make the killing stop."_

_But it wasn't going to stop. And Desmond knew that. He knew it would continue until every last person was dead. Gone._

_Suddenly a whole bunch of Others came out from the jungle and began shooting at the people in purple suits. The purple- suit people reacted by shooting right back at them, gunning them down. Now there were 3 parties involved. The crash survivors, the Others and the strange people that had landed in the helicopters. _

_He turned to see Kate turning to Claire who was crying and holding baby Aaron who was screaming his head off._

"_Claire, we need to get out of here." Kate said, her face stained with tears. Claire was just staring at the massacre going on in front of her. "Claire? Come on, let's go!" Claire didn't answer. Kate cried harder._

"_I…I can't." She said barely able to speak. Kate put her head next to Claire's. Both women were shocked and distressed. _

"_We have to." Kate whispered. "Before…" She glanced at Jack's body and blinked hard. Claire looked at Kate and nodded. Kate swallowed and looked up. She saw Sun in the near distance._

"_Sun!" She called. Sun could come with them to escape from this battle. Sun turned her head to look at them. There was a look of fear in her eyes that made Kate's heart beat faster. _

"_MOVE!" Came a voice out of view. It was Danielle running over to Sun. Before the women could register what was happening there was a huge explosion which caused Kate and Claire to fall over. Claire screamed and clutched Aaron tight. The infant fell out her arms and cried for its mother. Kate was thrust to the ground but as she tried to get herself back up to see Sun, she saw that Sun wasn't going to be able to come with them after all. She saw one of the helicopters had blown up and all she could see around it was parts of Sun and Danielle's bodies…along with others. There was so much fire. She let another tear fall before picking up Claire who was looking around for Aaron._

"_Aaron!!" She cried. "AARON!!" _

_Desmond was watching the scene unfold with a feeling of horror. Sun was dead…So many of them were already dead. He couldn't bare the thought that anymore would suffer. Kate, Claire. All of them. He saw Claire crying for her baby and he wanted to do something for her so badly. But he couldn't. He couldn't do anything. He was useless. To the side he saw someone in a purple suit carrying Aaron. He had a big grin on his face and was stalking off to the helicopter. As Kate dragged Claire along with her they saw Rose who looked as if she might fall unconscious._

"_Rose!" Kate called to her. Rose was looking out at the gunfire being shot from both sides and didn't respond. "Rose, come with us, NOW!" Kate said to her, trying to stay strong._

_Rose turned to look at her, revealing a bullet wound in her stomach. Kate gasped and put her hand to her mouth. Claire was still crying for Aaron, practically collapsing in Kate's arms while she held her. Kate called for some people to assist her and they took Claire from her grasp and encouraged her to follow them, while Kate went over to Rose and helped her walk away into the jungle. She didn't want to leave anymore behind. _

_Desmond span around as he heard another explosion and saw that the gunfire and the fire had caused the other helicopter to explode. He put his hands to his head as he realised that this meant more people had been blown up. He saw some of the Others dead on the floor and he shivered. He turned back around to Claire and Kate with Rose and some others who seemed to be escaping into the jungle. Desmond felt some relief that they were going to be able to escape but then he remembered that they didn't escape. Because he found them. He had found them all. They had all died. How did Kate die? How did Claire die? This was like a horror movie with the ending already known. It just had the gruesome middle missing._

_After staring into the fire from the explosion, almost being memorised he decided to follow Kate's group into the jungle. To find out what happened. Maybe it wouldn't happen? Maybe they would get away? That seemed highly unlikely. He had found them dead. And that's what was going to happen- they would die._

_They seemed to have gotten quite far into the jungle already. On the way he found Rose, on the floor. The bullet wound in her stomach having killed her. He said a quick prayer to the faithful woman before continuing round the corner. Claire and Kate were not far away with some other people. Kate was sitting with her head in her hands trying her best not to cry but it seemed she was too numb to cry. She was just sitting there which reminded Desmond of himself when he just sat all that long lonely year. Claire was sitting on a rock scribbling in her diary, tears flowing like a river and muttering to herself. After seemingly finishing what she had written she got up, letting her diary fall to the floor and she walked over to Kate._

"_Kate, we have to go back! We have to go back. They've got Aaron! They have my baby!" She cried loudly._

_Kate tried not to react but Claire shook her, causing her to stand up and yell._

"_We can't go back!" She yelled. "Not unless you want to be killed! Do you want to die, Claire?! Because I don't." She stared at the other woman, realising that these words would hurt her. But truthfully she didn't care much right now. Jack was dead. Everyone was dead. Maybe it would be best if she was dead herself after all._

_Claire stared right back at Kate. She felt like her heart was being beaten against a brick wall. Suddenly there was a gunshot. It went right through Desmond's ghostly figure. He yelled in shock before he watched it hit one of the people that had come with Kate, straight after there was another shot which killed another. Claire screamed and Kate looked in fear. The fear that she had seen in Sun's eyes was now in her own. She held onto Claire's hand tight and closed her eyes. Bang, bang. And it was over. They were gone._

_Desmond turned thinking he was literally going to be sick into a bush. He leant over, holding a tree and inhaled before standing back up and closing his eyes so he couldn't see Claire and Kate on the floor. Quickly he ran back to the beach and saw that it was finished. Everyone that had been fighting was now on the floor, unmoving. Just like how Desmond found them that day. The helicopters were black and in bits. Everything was dead. Suddenly Desmond felt dead himself._

Desmond blinked hard. The 'vision' (or whatever it was) was over. He could swear he could still taste blood in the air.

He sighed and wiped his eyes before falling to his knees and just screamed. He screamed out all the fear, all the pain, all the grief. He screamed until his face turned purple and he could hardly breathe. He lay down in the ground and he felt numb. He closed his eyes and wanted to sleep. He wanted to sleep forever. Then just as he thought he was finally drifting off, he heard a whisper.

"_Save us."_

His eyes shot open and he sat up like a bolt.

"_Find my diary, Desmond."_

"Claire?" he asked. That would be impossible. How could he be hearing her voice now? But the whispering persisted. He stood and looked around him. Where was it coming from? He recalled how the other survivors had mentioned they heard strange whisperings in the atmosphere around them but never discovered what the source was. Desmond was determined. Claire, the voice, mentioned her diary. He remembered the last time he saw it in his vision. She had dropped it on the floor near where she was killed. And now buried. He swallowed hard before making his way back there.

"Oh Claire," he knelt down by her grave. She was just an object buried in the ground and he felt so terrible. Sometimes thinking about Charlie's wet body underneath the ocean was haunting. But all these bodies surrounding him now were just as terrible. He remembered the words he had heard and searched for her diary.

_How will I be able to find it? _He asked himself as he scanned the floor and looked behind rocks. _After all this time surely it would have been destroyed like everything else. _

But then suddenly he caught a glimpse of the small book. He bent down next to a big rock and dug it from the mud. Raising the diary to his face he began to dust it off. The colour was drained and it was now a plain brown having been stained from the mud. He sighed and sat on the rock. What now?

_You can save us. You can save us all. _

Desmond cringed at the voice, "How? It's impossible!" He didn't seem to care where the voice was coming from now. If it was possible to save all his friends he wanted that more then anything. But Desmond was a lost sheep who needed guidance. He didn't know how to do this.

Sighing, he flicked through the book. He didn't really feel too guilty about reading through Claire's diary. He was sure it wouldn't matter to her now. He frowned as he neared the end. There was talk about Charlie, Aaron even Desmond himself. He smiled for a moment. It was nice Claire had written these down. It was just a shame it would never be discovered. She could have been famous with the book published. With her permission of course. He supposed that was quite impossible now anyway.

In boredom, he turned through her memories and found an entry concerning her mother. Desmond debated whether he should read on but he didn't see the harm. So he rested his elbows on his knees and read.

_Diary,_

_I went to see her again today. Mum, I mean. She looked so cold and peaceful. So….distant. I told her everything. About the pregnancy. About Thomas and the adoption. I think she understood. I think somehow she may have forgiven me. Possibly. Hopefully._

Desmond frowned. He had no idea what Claire had been put through. He filled in the gaps to what he didn't know. He was surprised and confused. He thought about Claire. Oh, poor Claire. You will never get to bring up your baby anyway. You will never be rescued. You will never sit on the beach with Charlie and Aaron as a family again.

The thoughts pained him. What could have been and what can't now. But these emotions had already swilled through his delicate mind once, he didn't want to think about it anymore.

_But I wished she could have replied to me. Even yelled at me. I just want her to see me again. I just want to hear her voice. And I ended up crying beside her. Typical of me really…Soft little Claire goes to see her mum and ends up crying…_

Desmond felt like he could see the event play out when he felt suddenly very light headed and the room began to spin as bright lights and voices entered his head.

He saw the crash, screaming, deaths, funerals, crying, laughing; events from the island, and Claire's final breath and the diary drop in quick flashes. He breathed deeply as he heard a voice.

* * *

"_Hey Des, have you seen anymore of your flashes?"_

"_You have to die this time, Charlie."_

"_I can't change it!"_

The voices echoed rapidly in his head as he saw the events that had happened so long ago fast forward right in front of him.

"_beep beep beep"_

The timer.

"_All we need in life is someone who truly loves us. And you have her."_

Penny.

"_I'm sorry mum! I'm sorry!"_

* * *

Suddenly, the flashes stopped. He looked up and put his hand to his face. He was still alive that was for sure. What was this? Another vision? It looked like he was actually there. Where was here? He looked around. It seemed to be a hospital room.

He glanced over and saw Claire. He jumped back in fear. She was crying over someone who seemed to be her mother. He swallowed and raised the diary in his hot hands. This was what she was talking about! This moment! But how-?

"Who are you?"

Desmond looked up quickly placing the diary in his back pocket. Claire had seen him. He _was _actually there. And she could see him! He bit his lip, "Claire?" It was really her. Slightly younger and different but it was definitely her in his presence right this minute! She stared at him, nose wrinkled. How did this stranger know her name?

"Uh..I'm...I'm Desmond.." he replied nervously. How could this be happening? How could he be here? Now?

Claire stared at him. He realised he shouldn't be here. He saw her pregnant buldge and whispered, "Aaron." Before running off in panic outside.

"Aaron?" Claire took a second to process the name in her mind. What the hell was he talking about? Who was this Desmond?

Desmond looked around him once outside the hospital. So it was true, "I'm back. I've gone back in time!" Just like he had before, with Penny and he had seen a younger version of Charlie strumming his guitar! A small smile spread across his face. But he realised this was beyond his control. Was he stuck here forever? What happened to the island, the deaths? How did he get here? He looked down at the diary.

He heard a small voice from behind him. He recognised it almost immediately. It was Claire. As he turned his head he saw her coming towards him, her face still tear stained.

"Excuse me!" She called. "Who are you? What were you doing in my mother's room?" It was obvious she wanted to know who this stranger was that knew her name and was calling her unborn child Aaron.

In his panic, Desmond turned and ran, Claire yelling after him. He wasn't meant to be here. His very being there could be causing some kind of rip in the space time continuum or something weird like that…he wasn't sure…But he knew if he got talking to Claire then that would be bad. Very bad somehow… As he ran, mind spinning with unanswered questions, the Scot smashed in to a lamppost. He felt his bleeding head as he went down.

He fell. But the ground didn't feel like stone. It was the jungle floor. He was back. He felt his head. Blood dripped down his face. So it did happen. He had gone back in time. He took out the diary and examined it. It was this thing that had done it. But how? He would've been more scared if he wasn't overcome with relief and happiness at that moment.

Because the voice was right.

He could save them. He could save them all.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

_Can Desmond save them all?? And how? Find out soon! D _


End file.
